[ COMMEMORATIVE EDITION ]
"We wanted to extend democracy to an isolated group of islands with a multi-ethnic group. We wanted to be absolutely sure we got that kind of democracy." Ah Quon McElrath,
ILWU union supporter and social worker,
about the fight for statehood
Statehood brought DEMOCRACY IN HAWAII always has been just a little more dear. Before 1959, politicians in Washington, D.C., picked Hawaii's judges and governors. Voters in Hawaii could not vote for president.
‘democracy for all’
Multi-ethnic Hawaii's admission
was seen as a civil rights firstBy Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin
And while Hawaii was a U.S. territory, the islands' freedoms were by no means secure. During World War II it was placed under martial law -- a fate shared by only a few cities in the South after the Civil War.
Before that, during the uproar over the racially divisive Massie case, the Navy seriously considered making Hawaii a naval district, under permanent military rule.
So when Congress in mid-March 1959 voted to admit Hawaii as a state, it extended the rights and benefits of full American citizenship to an area that was multi-ethnic, with a nonwhite majority.
Observers called it the first major piece of civil rights legislation to be passed by the postwar Congress.
"The goal was democracy for all in Hawaii, to give our Asian population a political voice equal to their numbers," said A.A. Smyser, Star-Bulletin contributing editor, who was the paper's political editor during the drive for statehood.
Hawaii wanted to become a state before World War II, recalled ILWU union supporter and social worker Ah Quon McElrath.
"In 1933 at McKinley (school), we debated the question of statehood," she said. "We were interested in statehood."
After the war, the ILWU, which was growing into Hawaii's dominant labor union and a major political force, was quick to support the statehood drive.
"We could see where an extension of democracy could be cemented," McElrath said.
"We wanted to extend democracy to an isolated group of islands with a multi-ethnic group. We wanted to be absolutely sure we got that kind of democracy."
Though it later got on the statehood bandwagon, the Honolulu Advertiser in the early postwar years was firmly against it. One front-page editorial, for example, said Hawaii needs statehood "like a cat needs two tails."
The territory's establishment, which owned and operated the sugar and pineapple plantations, shipping, and financial institutions, saw no benefit in statehood. They already had the influence and power needed to keep their businesses moving smoothly.
Further, business saw the newly expanding power of the labor movement and worried that statehood was just causing more problems.
In 1949, for instance, the ILWU dock strike shut down much of the local economy, to the extent that the action caused Congress to doubt whether Hawaii was ready for statehood.
But Hawaii's cause was championed by its delegates to Congress, first Joseph and Betty Farrington, then John Burns.
FARRINGTON, also publisher of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, dedicated his life to the statehood effort. It was such a passion that when he proposed marriage to Betty, Farrington warned her that his driving goal was Hawaii's statehood.
It was Farrington who, while in the Territorial Legislature, authored legislation for the Hawaii Equal Rights Commission, which soon became the statehood commission.
When he died during his term as delegate to Congress, Betty was elected to his post and continued the fight.
But when she was defeated in 1956 by Burns, the statehood drive was again colored by opponents who said Hawaii was filled with Communist Party supporters.
In Congress, Burns lobbied the Southern Democrats in the Senate, who were blocking Hawaii's statehood effort.
"He thrust the Japanese into the limelight, praising their war record, their political skill and their patriotism," Francine du Plessix Gray wrote in the 1970 book "The Sugar-Coated Fortress."
THE Hawaii Statehood Commission also was pushing loyalty and American values that cast Hawaii as an extension of Main Street USA.
On the cover of its 32-page brochure, sent to members of Congress, the commission featured a picture of morning assembly at Central Intermediate School, captioned, "A thousand young Americans pledge allegiance as the flag is raised in a typical Hawaii school ritual."
Still, the Southern Democrats, led by Texas Sen. Lyndon Johnson, feared that the multi-ethnic voters in Hawaii would send to Congress representatives and senators opposing segregation.
"Of course, Lyndon Johnson was no friend of statehood," Betty Farrington said in an interview after leaving office.
"He did everything he could (against Hawaii statehood) because he was representing the Southern racial opposition," she said.
Burns, however, worked with both Johnson and Sam Rayburn, the U.S. speaker of the House, and suggested that Alaska be allowed to become a state first, with the guarantee that Hawaii would follow the next year.
The deal worked. Congress, by mid-March 1959, approved Hawaii's statehood bill -- setting up the required plebiscite and statehood elections.
On Aug. 21, 1959 -- after a half-century effort tested by ethnic-military tensions, oligarchic power-brokering, political plays and two world wars -- a 50-star flag flew over America's newest state for the first time.
Editor's note: This is a condensed version of an article that first appeared in "The Millennium," a Star-Bulletin special project.
[ STATEHOOD ]
I was attending post-session at UH. I remember we were all waiting for the announcement that Hawaii would be the 50th state. Someone had sewn a flag with 50 stars (five rows of 10 stars in each row). When the announcement came on the radio, we all ran to the flagpole at Bachman Hall, lowered the flag and replaced it with the flag with 50 stars. Later, that event appeared via a photograph in the Paradise of the Pacific magazine. We wanted to be the first in the state to hoist a 50-star flag. UH sees the 1st 50-star flag
Aurilio Padilla, Mililani This is taken from my diary: March 12, 1959 -- Statehood was declared at 9:57 a.m. Hawaii time. To celebrate the historical moment, I baked my husband's favorite pumpkin pie topped with thick whipped cream. Family plants a tree that still provides bounty
At our back yard, my little daughter Eleanor, her pet cat Miss Katrina and I watched my husband planting a mountain apple tree. This tree is still supplying bountiful apple crops.
Ine A. Higa, Honolulu Statehood declared 1959. My junior year in high school in Hilo. When the news hit, school was in session and the principal called an assembly. We sang patriotic songs (national anthem, "Hawaii Pono'i"), and everyone was excited about the prospect of becoming "real" Americans. For years, we'd anticipated becoming the 49th State (even the state fair bore this title) but were deflated when Alaska got admitted before Hawaii. Students sing to mark becoming 'real' Americans
Delmarie Motta Klobe, Kailua